Aging and Gerontology

Introduction to Psychogerontology

• Ageing population: a growing concern in modern society
• Brief history of Psychogerontology:
  • Plato: viewed old age as a positive stage of life
  • Aristotle: saw old age as a disease and a ruin
  • Scientific background: development of research and studies using the scientific method
    • Francis Bacon: introduced the cross-sectional method
    • Quetelet: emphasized the importance of biological and social aspects
    • Galton: used the longitudinal method
    • Hall: recognized that not all older people are the same
    • Bühler: valued old age and the whole developmental process
    • Cowdry: consolidated the concept of gerontology with a holistic approach (biological, psychological, and social)

Gerontology: Conceptualization

• Definition: the discipline that studies both the ageing process and the state called old age, as well as the specific conditions of the elderly person
• Key aspects:
  • Older person: a person over 65 years old
  • Old age: a further stage of life that ends with death
  • Ageing: a natural biological process that begins at birth and ends at death
• Primary and secondary ageing factors:
  • Primary: uncontrollable factors (e.g., menopause)
  • Secondary: controllable factors (e.g., exposure to environmental pollution)

Gerontology: Objectives

• Two main objectives:
  1. Quantitative: extending life expectancy
  2. Qualitative: improving the quality of life
• Both objectives are essential and interconnected

Gerontology: Characteristics

• Reflects on the existence of the individual
• Reflects on society
• Multidisciplinary (biological, social, and psychological)

Gerontology: Resources

• International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics
• Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology
• Spanish Association of Psychogerontology

Psychogerontology: Definition

• A sub-discipline of psychology concerned with the study of ageing, old age, and the applications of this knowledge to promote the well-being of older people and their carers

Research Designs

• Longitudinal design: studying the same person at different moments
  • Advantages: non-causality, intra-individual similarities and differences, evolutionary change
  • Limitations: time-consuming, costly, familiarity testing, experimental mortality, cohort effect
• Cross-sectional design: studying different people at the same time
  • Advantages: more economical, shorter in time, no loss of participants
  • Limitations: no intra-individual change visible, no evolution visible, cohort effect
• Sequential design: studying different generations and ages at different times
  • Advantages: no cohort effect
  • Limitations: costly, slow, does not solve all disadvantages of the other designs

Ageing Population

• Reasons for ageing population:
  1. Decrease in mortality rate
  2. Declining birth rate
  3. Increased life expectancy
• Consequences of population aging:
  • Increased risk of cognitive impairment
  • Greater need for social and health care services
  • Affects autonomy, independence, and quality of life
  • Need to promote "active ageing"

Myths and Realities

• Stereotypes: shared beliefs about the characteristics of a social group
• Function of negative stereotypes about old age:
  • Encourage older people to assume stereotypes
  • Encourage incapacity and dependency
• Age discrimination (ageism): treating someone unfairly based on their age

Dismantling Stereotypes

• Biomedical model vs. Biopsychosocial model
• Deterioration (pathological) ≠ Decline (natural process)
• Cognitive functioning: decline depends on the type of cognitive function
• Emotion and affect: less emotion and more self-regulation
• Personality: older people remain the same as they are throughout their lives
• Social relationships: decrease due to mortality issues, but stronger relationships remain

Different Ages

• Types of age:
  • Chronological: number of years since birth
  • Biological: physiological changes (e.g., menopause)
  • Psychological: cognitive processes
  • Subjective: age one feels oneself to be
  • Cultural: social roles related to age
  • Functional: level of autonomy
• Old age classification:
  • Normal: old age without disease/disability but high risk of disease/disability
  • Pathologic: characterized by diseases and disabilities
  • Successful/Satisfactory: disability prevention, high physical/cognitive functioning, active participation in social and productive activities

Theories of Ageing

• Developmental Theories (Piaget, Erikson):

  • Piaget: focused on cognitive development in childhood and adolescence
  • Erikson: focused on the whole life cycle, including old age

• Activity Theories (Havighurst):

  • Importance of activity in old age
  • Research showed that active people were more fulfilled and satisfied

• Disengagement Theories (Cumming and Henry):

  • Passive role in old age
  • Reduced social relationships = feelings of contentment

• Continuity Theories (Atchley):

  • Argues for continuing development in old age
  • Balance between continuity and internal and external structural changes

• Selective Optimisation with Compensation (Baltes and Baltes):

  • Creating alternative strategies to compensate for deterioration
  • Optimisation, selection, compensation, and normalisation### Introduction to Psychogerontology

• Psychogerontology is the study of the life cycle, with a focus on balance between gains and losses throughout the life stages.

Physical Changes

Brain Ageing

• Decrease in brain size and slowing down of neuronal connections
• Loss of functional capacity, but learning can still continue
• Decrease in neurotransmitters (e.g. noradrenaline, acetylcholine, dopamine)

Physical Appearance

• Skin: less flexible, dry, thin, with freckles and uneven pigmentation
• Hair: becomes whiter, thinner, paler, and may fall out
• Body Posture: decrease in height and weight, leading to problems maintaining an upright position
• Body Fat: redistributed, with decrease in face, feet, and arms, and increase in lower abdomen and face
• Teeth: may fall out

Health Problems

• Arthritis: inflammation in the joints
• Hypertension: high blood pressure
• Deafness: decrease in audition
• Cardiovascular diseases: arrhythmias, heart attacks
• Cancer: more frequent in old age
• Hardening of the arteries: may promote strokes
• Osteoporosis: excessive bone loss

Organs of the Human Body

Cardiovascular System

• Cardiovascular disease and likelihood of stroke increase with age
• Changes in the heart and blood vessels
• Major cause of death in older people: heart disease

Respiratory System

• Respiratory rate remains constant, but respiratory capacity decreases
• Most common respiratory diseases: tuberculosis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Bones, Muscles, and Body

• Muscle mass decreases, leading to weakness
• Bone mass is lost, leading to fragility and increased risk of breaks

Gastrointestinal System

• Liver shrinks, leading to jaundice and cirrhosis
• Indigestion and gas are common

Urinary System

• Bladder capacity decreases
• Incontinence is frequent, especially in older women
• Decreased agility to reach the toilet can cause anxiety

Endocrine System

• Decreased hormone secretion
• Organs that produce hormones are controlled by other hormones, leading to a chain reaction of decreased secretion

Immunological System

• Reduced functioning, making older people more likely to get sick
• Exercise and flu vaccines can help

Sensory Changes

Vision

• Presbyopia: near vision gets worse
• Worsening of the retina, leading to difficulties in visual acuity, color perception, and depth perception
• Diseases: cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment

Audition

• Presbycusis: gradual loss of hearing due to age-related deterioration
• Tinnitus: ringing or other noises in the ears
• Hearing loss can lead to emotional problems and social isolation

Taste

• Decreased taste buds, leading to weaker teeth and gums
• Decreased enjoyment of food, which can lead to social isolation and malnutrition

Smell

• Larger nose and more nasal hair
• Anosmia: loss of sense of smell, which can be dangerous (e.g., not detecting spoiled food or gas leaks)

Touch

• Decreased sensitivity, especially in lower extremities
• Decreased sensitivity to pain and temperature### Individual Events vs. Cultural Events
• Individual events: events that happen to a person, such as early cancer
• Cultural events: events that happen in a specific historical context or culture, such as the pandemic

Factors Affecting Response to Events

• Preparing for an event: affects how well we integrate and assimilate it
• Understanding the event: influences how we deal with it
• Health (psychological and physical): facilitates response to events
• Personality variables: affect response to events
• Life story: events we have experienced throughout our life and how we have responded to them
• Social support: affects response to events

Model of Identity Factors (Costa and Mcrae, 1980)

• The Big Five personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, kindness, and responsibility
• Each factor has a high and low score, with corresponding characteristics:
  • Neuroticism: high score = insatiable, hostile, etc.; low score = quiet, friendly, etc.
  • Extraversion: high score = skilled in relationships, talkative, etc.; low score = silent, quiet, etc.
  • Openness to experience: high score = imaginative, likes art, etc.; low score = realistic, not very creative, etc.
  • Kindness: high score = seeks acceptance, collaborator, etc.; low score = opposition to others, cruel, etc.
  • Responsibility: high score = worker, ambitious, etc.; low score = irresponsible, disorganized, etc.

Criticisms of the Model

• Personality characteristics do not remain stable, and answers to tests can vary depending on the time in life
• The model may not be applicable to all populations, as it was based on data from heterosexual cis men

Model of Normative Crises (Erikson, 1950)

• Personality development occurs as a consequence of social and emotional changes experienced at certain ages
• The model proposes eight stages of development, with each stage building on the previous one
• Overcoming each crisis successfully generates a virtue
• The balance between positive and negative values is essential

Criticisms of the Model

• Heteronormativity: the model only considered heterosexual cis men and did not account for other identities
• The model focuses on male development and does not consider identity development in adulthood

Social Relationships

• Couple: most older people still have their first partner, and satisfaction with the couple increases with age
• Types of relationships:
  • Intimacy (capital I): ability to bond and maintain emotional relationships
  • intimacy (lowercase i): sporadic, casual relationships
  • Privacy: little to no privacy in older age
• Factors affecting relationships:
  • Age: influences satisfaction with relationships
  • Health: affects relationships
  • Income: financial dependence on the partner affects relationships
  • Social activities: involvement in social activities outside of the relationship affects relationships
  • Rediscovery: rekindling relationships in older age

Grief

• Grief is a process that occurs in response to any loss, not just death
• Different phases of grief:
  • Confusion/Ignorance
  • Nostalgia/Seeking the lost figure
  • Disorganization/Despair
  • Reorganization/Recovery
• Tasks to be carried out in the grieving process:
  • Accept the reality of death
  • Feel the pain of loss
  • Adapt to the new life
  • Regain the ability to love

Children and Grandchildren

• The majority of older people are parents (80%)
• Children begin to take responsibility for the well-being of older people
• Grandparents play a role in providing care, wisdom, and companionship
• Types of grandparents:
  • Caregivers
  • Judges
  • Source of family wisdom
  • Companions
  • Indifferent
  • Permissive

Friendships

• Friendships are important in older age
• Frequency of contact and joint activities affect relationship satisfaction
• Age and intermediate generation (parents) influence relationships with grandparents

Sexual and Gender Adjustment

• Sexuality is a central aspect of human life that is present throughout life
• Sexuality is linked to the political and social context
• Common errors and myths about sexuality in older age:
  • Reducing sexuality to genitality
  • Focusing only on intercourse
  • Considering erection as a symbol of power and prestige
  • Believing that older people do not have sexuality
  • Believing that older people are not sexually attractive
  • Believing that older people have no physiological ability to have sex

Cognitive Development

• Types of intelligence:
  • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
  • Classic aging model (Botwinick, 1967)
  • Bifactorial theory (Catell, 1963; Horn, 1968)
  • Seattle longitudinal study (Schaie, 2005)
• The WAIS is a widely used adult intelligence test
• The classic aging model found that older adults perform worse on non-verbal subtests
• The bifactorial theory proposes two forms of intelligence: fluid and crystallized
• The Seattle longitudinal study found that healthier adults did not experience significant decline until after age 60

This quiz explores the concept of aging and the field of gerontology, including its multidimensional aspects and WHO's 4-factor model for active ageing.